Women in the Ancient Near East
Notes by Dr. Paul Collins of a Saturday Lecture given at the British Musem around 1998. Found these notes and am sharing them now with you!
best,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Old Kingdom
For non-royal women, it is impossible to avoid to avoid the royal family and look at the tomb chapels of queens for some evidence for women of lesser status. Tomb chapels provide the bulk of the evidence. Nearly all of them belonged to men (and of high rank and office). Hieratic literature is limited to a few letters to the dead, containing some perplexing hints of domestic strife , and a small group of ostraca that accompanied the mummies of women from El Kab to Helwan. There are no biographies of women and the repertory of autobiographical epithets is limited. The only ones not mentioning their husbands are 'caring of the heart for the orphans', 'whom people praise', 'whom all her town loved' (6th Dynasty) or earlier one says 'she who beholds the beauty of her lord'.
Non-royal women normally share their husband´s chapels - a number of chapels show children but do not bother to mention the wife. The reverse situation is excedingly rare. The second status of women is shown - she sits on the subordinate right side of the offering table, her husband is on the dominant left. If the couple are seated togther on a single chair her legs are passed behind the seat so that she is behind him and he is nearest the offering. She holds onto him, he scarcely ever holds onto her. Se is identified as 'his wife' or 'his beloved wife'. In rare cases the husband praises the wife 'so great was her state of reverence in my being; she did not utter a statement that repelled my heart; she did not transgress while she was young in life.'
Children are called 'his son/daughtr' never their son/daughter.
Marriage was monogamous at least until Heracleopolitan period, when there were some exceptions. Siblings are much more rarely depicted or other members of the older generation. Often the mother of the tomb owner is shown (very rarely the mother-in-law). The inheritance of wealth as well as status played a part in the prominence given the mother in tomb chapels, for there is incriptional evidence for the fact that non-oryal women could own and bequeath property. Mother´s role are to be found on the plane of goddesses. The nursing mother motif is quite numerous.
Despite the wife´s secondary status in the tomb chapel she seems to have enjoyed the companionship of her husband frequently. Play the harp (like the ladies at eh spinet or piano). They share the same offering table. Slightly smaller wife predominates, but this may reflect reality? From the 4th Dynasty they satnd together, or she accompanies him on boating trips.
The religious beliefs concerning hereafter of the deceased applied equally to men and women. The same funerary formulas appear for on the false doors and towards the end of the Old Kingdom women, like men, could become Akh - a transfigured sprit in the next world. Survival ultimately entailed identification with the male god Osiris. The identification of women with Osiris appears int eh Pyramid texts of Queen Neith, where the name of the god proceeds the name of the deceased. In the next world, as in this one, a woman could only reign by becoming king.
There is a tendency for men to be waited upon women, women by women though male stewards and scribes served many royal women. Boys and girls pay games separately. As do dancers. Weaving until the New Kingdom was executed entirely by women. Women probably also made clothing. However, men do the washing in later periods.
End of his notes on Egypt... Gods be praised!
Great. I was getting tired of so much... errrrrr... subservience... or lack of evidence of WOMEN IN POWER. Isis, Maat, Hathor be forever praised!
Things are better in Mesopotamia!!!
regards from Independent, Dynamic, Not Housebound and Luvingly Non-Maternal
Scribe Priestess Lish
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Re: Women in the Ancient Near East
Woemn in Egypt (2)
Sorry, there is another page .... sighs
Bread and beer making was usually done in co-operation with men. Only men are known to be called baker. The winnowing and sieving of grain is a women´s task.
Of all the activities, their participation in the temple and funerary rituals was doubtless felt to be the most important. Singers, priestesses of Hathor, dancer priestesses of Cheops, Ptah and a wife of Min known - earliest exemple of divine consort found in the New Kingdom. Women impersonate Isis and Nephthys at the end of the funeral bier. Mourners, funerary dance and give offerings.'The screecher comes, the kite comes, namely Isis and Nephthys, they have come in search of their brother' (Pyramid Texts of Pepi).
'Overseer of the Chamber of Wigs' (hairdresser) and 'overseer of doctors' are important. In market scenes women are normally the purchaser. Men become portly in old age, women do not. Women participated in some of the most essential and important societies of that society, they could possess property of their own and hold positions of considerable responsibility.
Middle Kingdom
They appear as scribes in large private households -none in palace. We do not hear of female overseers or administrative officers within a profession. Only scribes are known from the funerary stele in the funerary complex of Mentuhotep another three are known. Training by tutors - secrataries to aristocratic women. No female scribe is portrayed.
The Old kingdom replete with Overseers, Directors, Inspector ranks completely lacking in the Middle Kingdom. Even moderate positions in teh palace to be lacking in the MK - part of the extensive adm reforms of Senusret III? No women in government. Women work indoors. Honoured as Lady of the House.
New Kingdom
The images of women are likely to be the images of elite men in Egyptian society had of women. Egyptian artists were at pains to distinguish bodily proportions found in men and women. Men are shown physically stronger.
It seems that women had a full capacity of rights but that in daily life they often left to their husbands the exercise of those rights. They owned land and could sell it and leave a will.
Now we are really done with the notes on Egypt...
best,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
From historical, royal and building inscriptions of the Early Dynastic period (ca. 3000-2200 Before Common Era), we can compile a list of important women, almost all of them wives and daughters of rulers and high officials. An exceptional case is the legendary Ku-Bau who ruled Kish for one hundred years according to later legend. From legal documents of the Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2550 BCE) it is clear that women could buy houses privately.
All aspects of agriculture were controlled by the wife´s house - Bau archive - sowing, harvesting and storage, canal maintenance and equipment supplies. Vegetable gardens and orchards were also cultivated. The household owned cattle, pigs, sheep and goats and some one hundred fishermen were employed by it. Labour was provided by a large group of men, but more so by women and children. All these dependants are provided with rations of barley, bread, milk, malt and wool.
The role of women is clear from other archives. From Umma (Sargonic period) couple Urr-Shara and Ama-e, husband specialized in animal husbandry, the wife Ama-e owned large areas of land - she also seems to deal in wood and metals. They can act independently, buying and selling houses, act as guarantor for another person and are involved in court procedures. Under Ur III lots of texts. Queen had an administration of her own and played an important role in economic life of the state. One queen is responsible for the collection of animals and their distribution to the temples of Nippur and other cities. Most of the people who contribute animals are women and at least one of the officials that work for her is a woman. Unfortunately, most Sumerian and some Akkadian names are given to both men and women.
It has become clear that the kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur must have had more than one wife, since some of them are father to some 18 to 20 children - diplomatic marriages but possible that we just have a succession of wives.
Wives of governors are active in the textile industry, etc. which may suggest that women apart from royal women were active in the economic life of their cities. Women could own land, orchards, slaves, oxen and silver. It is clear that women had the same legal rights as men, and that they could go to court to protect these rights.
Women workers (experienced and newly acquired) on weaving mentioned with their children. The texts also mention the number of children who were probably kept byt he women at work, as many of them are suckling babies. Boys separated when grown up and girls raised to become weavers like their mothers. 6000 female workers are attested in one archive, possibly as many as 12,000 they are not all slaves. A great number possibly derived from the so-called a-ru-a institution, where objects, animals or people are donated to the temples.
SECOND MILLENNIUM
Late Babylonian hym to the goddess of Healing, Gula "I am a daughter-in-law, I am a spouse, I am a housekeeper". There were no liberated women who could do their own thing. This is a 20th century reality and goal and not applicable to the ancient world... Lishtar´s Note: But there were independent goddesses and one truly liberated and liberating Great Goddess ... Inanna/Ishtar
Widowhood usually meant poverty but it could also be liberation to whom seemed free to act on her own and handle her own affairs.
Old Assyrian merchants wives were involved in large scale transactions known from their letters. They represented their husbands in various commercial and legal transactions. Did they work independently? Did they earn money which they could spend as they wished?
Prostitutes were regulated by law, at least theoretically.
Enheduanna is a priestess, but she is also a royal princess Some priestesses may marry, others may not, some are celibate, some not, some cloistered others not. Naditu- scribes, administrators, cloistered, on her death, her property reverted to the male relatives. She could adopt children but was celibate - acted like men, money lenders.
MIDDLE ASSYRIAN LAWS
Male fear of independent women expressed in the first millennium by fear of witches and sorceresses, ex. maqlu.
Nzu - Mothers arranged their sons and daughters marriages. Women appear active, participates in economic and legal activities - wills, adoption and disinherit.
Powerful women in Assyrian may reflect the harem - Semiramis, Zaqutu-Naqia, Nabonidus´mother, etc.
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Have a look at the thread Real Life, Real Women which focuses on the Archives of Mari and Karana, taken from the book by Professor Dalley next to see women´s lives coming to life out from the Old Babylonian Period!
best regards,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
The history of women in Mesopotamia is a long and complex one. Part of this is due to the fact that there are many divisions in the history of Mesopotamia itself. History begins in Mesopotamia with civilizations there rising and falling and shifting. Along with these shifting civilizations came shifting views about women, particularly their status and freedoms. This essay will cover the status of women during the different civilizations of Mesopotamia: Sumeria, Babylonia, Assyria, and Judea. Of special interest, however, is the Assyrian period, which lasted from 900 BC.-600BC. During this period, an extremely important law, entitled the Middle Assyrian Law 40, was written that still affects women of this region today. With MAL 40, the state assumed control of female sexuality by forcing certain women to wear veils, and restricting other women from wearing them. With each successive civilization, women enjoyed less freedom and a lower status, and a patriarchal revolution slowly took place.
The first ancient Mesopotamian civilization was that of Sumeria (2500 BC.-1750 BC.) During this period, a woman's strongest position was in relation to the temples. Often young girls worked in the temples as housekeepers or as concubines to the earthly representatives of the gods (Stephenson 56). Fathers were proud to have their daughters serving religion in this way. They would mark their daughters' entry into temple life with a ceremonial sacrifice and bestow the girls' marriage dowries to the temple (Stephenson 56). Nin-dingir priestesses annually participated in the Sacred Marriage by impersonating or representing the goddess Inanna (Lerner 239). The Sacred Marriage likely originated in the Sumerian city of Uruk (which was dedicated to the Goddess Inanna) earlier than 3000 B.C. The basis for the ritual of the Sacred Marriage was the belief that fertility of the land and of people depended on the celebration of the sexual power of the fertility goddess (Lerner 239). The Sacred Marriage was between the Goddess Inanna and either the high priest (representing the god), or the king (representing the God Dumuzi), and was performed in the temples of various fertility goddesses for nearly two thousand years. The annual symbolic reenactment of this mythical union was a public celebration essential to the well-being of the community, and since it was the occasion of a joyous celebration, it may have involved sexual activity on the part of the worshipers in and around the temple grounds (Lerner 240). The fact that the king of Sumer ritually married a representative of the goddess Inanna once every year helped sustain the power of the priestesses at least for a time (Stephenson 56). Rites similar to the Sacred Marriage also flourished in classical Greece and pre-Christian Rome (Lerner 240).
One of the most famous women in Sumerian history and one of the first poets of Western civilization is En Hedu'anna, the daughter of Sargon. She was a "high priestess of the moon god...and her influence was so great that she later seems to have been regarded as a god herself" (Stephenson 57). The poetic style in her poem, "The Exaltation of Inanna", served as a model for subsequent poetry. More than likely she is also the author of many other poems which were unfortunately not so well preserved.
There were many laws that regulating so-called "conventional" marriages. A father gave his daughter and her husband a dowry which they owned together, but which she controlled and could bequest (Stephenson 56). Both the husband and wife shared equal rights when it came to exercising rights over their children. An upper-class wife could conduct her own business affairs, and could keep personal slaves or sell them. In Sumerian society, adultery was forgivable for a man, but because a wife must bear only her husband's children, the punishment for a woman was death (Stephenson 56). Additionally, a woman was valued for the number of children she had. If she produced no children, she could be divorced. If she did not want to give birth continuously, her husband then possessed the legal right to drown her. It is of importance to note that as male power and wealth grew and shifted, women's status was reduced. It is believed that women enjoyed a higher status in the earlier Sumerian years than in the civilization's later years.
In about 1750 BC. the Sumerians, who had been the creative force in developing Western civilization, were overcome by neighboring Semitic people, the Babylonians, whose greatest king gave his famous Code of Hammurabi to history (Stephenson 57). Historians have learned much about the Babylonian male/female relationship, and the status of women, from the Code of Hammurabi. Under these laws, a woman could be divorced on virtually any grounds: childlessness, adultery, and even poor household management. For example, one of the rules states, "If she have not been a careful mistress, have gadded about, have neglected her house, and have belittled her husband or children , they shall throw that woman into the water." All the husband need do to obtain a divorce was say, "Thou art not my wife," and return her dowry (Walsh 24). However, a wife who used these words against her husband would be drowned. A woman could not divorce her husband, but she could leave him if she could prove that her husband had been cruel and that she had been faithful, and then simply return to her parents' home with her dowry. A wronged husband was free to kill his wife and her lover (Walsh 24).
Under certain limitations women could own, inherit, and bequeath property. Though the Code clearly acknowledged the value of property, and women as property, punishment was much more severe if a poor man damaged a rich man, or his property, or a rich man's wife, than vice versa (Stephenson 63). Essentially, Babylonian females were property. Their fathers determined whom they should marry, and they could sell them to the prospective husbands for an agreed-upon price. Marriage was monogamous for women, but men were free to visit prostitutes, or to take concubines. Upper class women were especially considered as property, and they were therefore confined to quarters. If they went out, they had to be accompanied by eunechs, who were male slaves who had been castrated and were considered no threat to another man's property (Stephenson 64). Lower class women did have freedom, but if they had no dowry then their status was only slightly above that of a slave. Despite a loss of status in position of women in Babylon compared with their predecessors of Sumer, the women of Babylon still continued to hold certain rights of independence (Stephenson 64). They could be judges, elders, witnesses, and scribes. In many ways their position was even higher than that of women in nineteenth century England or America. It is clear that though they are not recorded in history by name, women as priestesses, business managers, midwives, musicians, scribes, and textile workers actively contributed to the rich commercial civilization of Babylonia (Stephenson 65).
The next civilization in Mesopotamian history, Assyria (900 BC.-600 BC.), saw a great decrease in women's rights and personal liberties. Assyrian society was much more militaristic, and its law code was generally harsher, than that of Babylonia (Lerner 247). As a war-like empire, it encouraged a high birth rate because it needed soldiers. Women who bore sons were honored, while on the other hand women who miscarried, or who died in attempting childbirth, were impaled on a stake (Stephenson 66). However, the Assyrian period is especially important in the way it relates to women's rights not only thousands of years ago, but also today. This is because the Middle Assyrian laws (of most importance Middle Assyrian Law 40) were created during this time period.
Nearly all of the Middle Assyrian laws relate to women and were a further limitation on the rights of women. The laws are thought to be amendments to the laws of King Hammurabi and his Hammurabi Code. As important and far-reaching in their effect as the Hammurabi Code, the Middle Assyrian laws contain examples of early attempts to regulate and control the activities of women in Mesopotamia (Passman 457). The law regarding the veiling of women, MAL 40, reads:
Neither (wives) of (seigniors) nor (widows) nor (Assyrian women) who go out on the street may have their heads uncovered. The daughters of a seignior...whether it is a shawl or a robe or a mantle, must veil themselves...When they go out on the street alone, they must veil themselves. A concubine who goes out on the street with her mistress must veil herself. A sacred prostitute whom a man married must veil herself on the street, but one whom a man did not marry must have her head uncovered on the street; she must not veil herself. A harlot must not veil herself; her head must be uncovered.
This law was created in order to solve the problem of how to distinguish between "respectable" and "not respectable" women, for as the sexual regulation of women of the propertied class became more firmly entrenched, the virginity of respectable daughters became a financial asset for the family (Lerner 247). It attempted to solve the problem by forcing women who were considered "respectable" to wear a veil and those who weren't to go uncovered. It can certainly be seen how the implications of this law are several and great and the effects of the law remain with us today, as in the most obvious case of the wearing of the chador in Islamic nations.
For the first time through the MAL 40 a "respectable woman" is clearly defined, as is her counterpart. A respectable woman is defined as a woman who can be identified as the property of an Assyrian nobleman (either widow, wife, or daughter). The concubine, or secondary wife, is also defined as respectable when she appears in public with the first wife, her mistress. Under MAL 40, however, a slave woman must not veil herself, nor must a prostitute (Passman 457). The veil, the symbol and emblem of the married woman, is here elevated to a distinguishing mark and its wearing made a privilege (Lerner 24 . There were severe consequences for those who violated the law. "He who has seen a harlot veiled must arrest her, produce witnesses (and) bring her to the palace tribunal; they shall not take her jewelry away (but) the one who arrested her may take her clothing; they shall flog her fifty (times) with staves (and) pour pitch on her head (Lerner 24 ." This punishment is highly symbolic, for covering her head with pitch gives her the only kind of "veil" to which her lowly state entitles her (Lerner 249). The law goes on to specify the punishment for a slave girl who is caught wearing a veil: she shall have her clothing taken away and have her ears cut off (Lerner 249).
It can thus be seen how women were classified by law according to their sexual activities. Women who were servants to a man or who otherwise saw to his sexual needs or were under his protection were veiled, in essence marking these women off as "private property." Women who were not in this position- slave women, free born concubines, commercial and sacred prostitutes- were unveiled, or in other words they were seen as "private property" (Passman 45 . The most interesting aspect of the law concerns the punishment given to the man who fails to report a violation of the veiling law: "If a seignior has seen a harlot veiled and has let her go without bringing her to the palace tribunal they shall flog that seignior fifty times with staves; they shall pierce his ears, thread them with a cord, and tie it at his back, and he shall do the work of the king for one full month." (Lerner 249).
Middle Assyrian Law 40 institutionalized a ranking order for women: at the top, the married lady or her unmarried daughter; beneath her, but still counted among the respectable, the married concubine, whether freeborn or slave or temple prostitute; at the bottom, clearly marked off as not respectable, the unmarried temple prostitute, the harlot, and the slave woman (Lerner 250). Before the creation of the law sacred prostitutes, who, as priestesses representing various goddesses, had been fairly autonomous, independent, and even respected (Passman 45 . Under MAL 40 the sacral nature of sexual temple service was no longer the decisive factor in determining a woman's "respectability", for the temple prostitute was regarded in the same way as the commercial prostitute (Lerner 250). In ancient Mesopotamian society, there was a clear distinction between religious and commercial prostitution, however the Middle Assyrian Law 40 blurred this distinction. Such a law served to lower the social standing of certain groups of women therefore dividing them, and was an early sign of the open intervention of the state into the realm of private sexual conduct (Passman 45 .
The final civilization in Mesopotamian history that this essay will examine is Judea. June Stephenson summarizes the status of women during this time in her book, Women's Roots: "The social and legal position of an Israelite wife was inferior to the position of wife occupied in the great countries round about...all the texts show that Israelites wanted mainly sons, to perpetuate the family line and fortune, and to preserve the ancestral inheritance...A husband could divorce his wife...women on the other hand could not ask for divorce...the wife called her husband Ba'al or master; she also called him adon or lord; she addressed him in fact as a slave addresses his master or a subject, his king. The Decalogue includes a man's wife among his possessions...all her life she remains a minor. The wife does not inherit from her husband, nor daughters from their fathers, except when there is no male heir. A vow made by a girl or married woman needs, to be valid, the consent of the father or husband and if this consent is withheld, the vow is null and void. A man had the right to sell his daughter. Women were excluded from the succession" (Stephenson 70).
In Judea, religion, instead of government, was the law, and Jewish family life reflected the patriarchal structure of the religion (Stephenson 71). Because it was important for the population to increase, there was no room in society for unmarried men or women. When a woman got married, she had to prove her virginity in order to ensure that a man's child was indeed his. Because the woman had been bought by her husband, adultery was a violation of the law of property and usually resulted in death to both parties (Stephenson 72). A woman's first priority, and her greatest value as judged by men, was her ability to reproduce. Therefore, if a woman could not provide children for any reason, she was seen as a disgrace. For women, marriage was monogamous, though polygamous for men (Stephenson 72). It can be seen that women enjoyed very little, if any at all, freedoms during this time. Their lives (both public and private) were strictly controlled by their religion.
Throughout Mesopotamian history, women experienced different liberties and their role changed with each successive civilization. A patriarchal revolution took place that greatly affected women's status; in general, women had a higher standing in the earlier Mesopotamian periods. The Code of Hammurabi was the beginning of the institutionalization of the patriarchal family as an aspect of state power (Lerner 253). It reflected a class society in which women's status depended on the male family head's social status and property. With the Middle Assyrian Law 40, the state assumed control of female sexuality, which had previously been left to individual heads of families. From the middle of the second millenium BC. on, from the public veiling to the regulation by the state of birth control and abortion, the sexual control of women has been an essential feature of patriarchal power (Lerner 254). Unfortunately, the sexual control of women by outside forces is still a problem that is trying to be overcome today.
WORKS CITED
Lerner, Gerda. "The Origin of Prostitution in Ancient Mesopotamia." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 11 (1986): 236-254.
Passman, Kristina M. "Veils." Women's Studies Encyclopedia. Ed. Helen Tierney. New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 1991. 3:457-458.
Stephenson, June. Women's Roots: Status and Achievements in Western Civilization. Napa, California: Diemer, Smith Publishing Company, 1988.
Walsh, Elizabeth Miller. Women in Western Civilization. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Company, 1981.
Westenholz, Joan Goodnick. "Tamar, Qedesa, Qadistu, and Sacred Prostitution in Mesopotamia." Harvard Theological Review 82 (1989): 245-265.
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Diotima
It is indeed an excellent site... I doubt that the scholars who have written for it *ignore* the ancient Near East, it is probably just that they are experts in other areas, and write about what they know. And it does have articles about Biblical women and Biblical archaeology, among then a piece called Looking for Lilith.
Re: Diotima
Great info, I will definately have to remember it if I need a reference on this most interesting subject. I especially liked the info about Sumerian and Babylonian women, as they are usually golssed over as harlots and or/male property.
One nitpick, though. While not exactly a femminist utopia; Egyptian women were not always simply domestic servants. In some sources I have read, the Egyptians were said to be matrilineal, and Horus is called the son of Isis. Makes sense, since it is easier to prove a baby's mother than father. (I heard the Sumerians did this too, being practical people. Anyone know about that?) There were a few powerful queens of the Old Kingdom, A National Geographic I have floating around somewhere has recent findings of a couple of Pepi I's wives who were not above assasination to see their own respective sons on the throne. They are acting through men, but still these women definately knew how to get their own ways! Also, as Lady of the House, women commanded the affairs of the household, and men were advised not to interfere (there is a specific proverb; I will have to hunt it down.)
Mythologically, goddesses trick/outsmart gods on several occasions. Isis tricks Re into revealing his true name to her by making a snake with venom that can only she can cure, and has the snake bite Re. Re was forced to reveal his name in order to live. (A possible Mesopotamian paralell myth would be where Inanna gets Enki drunk and steals the me's.) There are also a couple of fierce "enforcer" goddesses, one of whom is Sekhmet .
Like I said, not exactly a society of gender equality, but much less oppressive than later societies where women were regarded as little more than walking wombs.
I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it. -Voltaire
. There were severe consequences for those who violated the law. "He who has seen a harlot veiled must arrest her, produce witnesses (and) bring her to the palace tribunal; they shall not take her jewelry away (but) the one who arrested her may take her clothing; they shall flog her fifty (times) with staves (and) pour pitch on her head (Lerner 24
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